Chelsea helped themselves to their fourth win in four games with this ruthless suppression of Burnley. Nicolas Anelka, Michael Ballack and Ashley Cole all struck telling blows and the margin of victory would have been even more emphatic but for valiant goalkeeping by Brian Jensen and wasteful finishing by the rampant home side.

Chelsea began briskly and Anelka loosened up with a long-range shot in the third minute that brought an elementary save from Jensen. Thirty seconds later the striker was summoned to set a tougher test for the keeper, but narrowly failed to connect with a fizzing Ballack cross. If that was forgivable, Anelka's miss in the sixth minute was the sort managers are loth to excuse. After intercepting a careless pass by André Bikey, Anelka had the whole Burnley half to himself but freedom of choice appeared to befuddle the Frenchman and, as he sped towards goal debating whether to shoot or round the keeper, Jensen surged off his line to snaffle the ball.

Two minutes later it was Burnley's turn to pardon a defensive error. Tyrone Mears dispossessed a dozing Frank Lampard on the edge of the Chelsea area and showed impressive awareness to pick out Martin Paterson in splendid isolation on the far side of the box. The striker placed a low shot past Petr Cech but, unhappily for the visitors, also fractionally past the post.

That was but a blip by Chelsea. With Deco probing at the tip of the diamond and Lampard, Ballack and Anelka flitting hither and thither, they soon regained control. Jensen hurtled off his line to deny Ballack in the 21st minute, then watched gratefully as Drogba curled the ball wide after a bustling run and shot. Then the Dane blocked a John Terry drive after a Deco corner had broken to the England captain. Soon he was beating away a Lampard volley.

After he clasped a long-range Deco stinger some in the crowd seemed to ponder the possibility of Burnley keeping a third successive clean sheet in the Premier League – but there was still an hour to go, and with Chelsea continuing to attack in waves the gallant Burnley defence was beginning to drop so deep they could have done with Scuba gear.

Just before the break, they were finally sunk. Drogba, who moments earlier had teed up Lampard for an opportunity that the England midfielder botched, scampered down the right before serving Anelka with an invitation to score that the Frenchman duly accepted, poking the ball into the net from two yards.

Any hope of a Burnley recovery was scuppered in the 48th minute when Lampard raced on to a clever pass down the left and floated the ball to the back post, where Ballack sent a diving header past Jensen. Four minutes later Lampard and Ashley Cole rent the visitors' still-reeling defence asunder with a snappy one-two and the left-back fired into the top corner.

In between those goals Anelka had spurned another chance, and immediately after the third he struck a shot against the bar after rounding the now forlorn Jensen.

Three mighty Essien shots threatened to compound matters for Burnley but the first, in the 68th minute, flew just wide from 20 yards, the second a minute later was straight at Jensen, while the third, in the 77th minute, elicited Jensen's best save of the game, a flying one-hander that enabled him to tip the ball around the post. Just before full-time the substitute Salomon Kalou had a shot cleared off the line.

When they could actually get the ball Burnley showed their inclination to use it tidily but the closest they came to bothering Cech after Paterson's early miss was in the 74th minute, when a neat move culminated with Chris McCann slashing wide from 20 yards.

Yet to concede at home, Burnley are yet to score away. Neither of those stats will last, but their destiny this season will depend on which pattern is sustained more steadily over the entire campaign.